CIT is an international program, consisting of 40 hours of training over 5 consecutive days designed to teach law enforcement and first responders to: recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness; provide them the skills to safely de-escalate a situation involving a person living with mental illness who is in a crisis situation; and provide them the knowledge to divert those individuals to proper resources and treatment rather than incarceration, where appropriate.

CIT training is a 40 hour block of comprehensive instruction designed to train law enforcement officers and other first responders to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness; to provide participants with the skills to de-escalate situations involving individuals in a mental health crisis, and to hopefully be able to divert the person to appropriate local treatment resources rather than arrest, when that is appropriate.

The main goals of CIT are to improve officer and consumer safety, and to redirect individuals with mental illness from the judicial system into the mental health treatment and support system.

The 40 hour training includes numerous blocks of instruction on many forms of mental illness; on psychotropic medications; on veteran issues; on suicide risk assessment, prevention and response; dementia and elder abuse issues; substance abuse, and autism and developmental disabilities. Participants are connected to their local crisis response and treatment providers during a day of visits into the community, and they are introduced to individuals living with mental illness and their families. Lastly, participants learn critical de-escalation skills, and engage in scenario-based role play exercises.